Aging and immortality in a cell proliferation model.
J Theor Biol
; 248(3): 411-7, 2007 Oct 07.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-17631317
ABSTRACT
We investigate a model of cell division in which the length of telomeres within a cell regulates its proliferative potential. At each division, telomeres undergo a systematic length decrease as well as a superimposed fluctuation due to exchange of telomere DNA between the two daughter cells. A cell becomes senescent when one or more of its telomeres become shorter than a critical length. We map this telomere dynamics onto a biased branching-diffusion process with an absorbing boundary condition whenever any telomere reaches the critical length. Using first-passage ideas, we find a phase transition between finite lifetime and immortality (infinite proliferation) of the cell population as a function of the influence of telomere shortening, fluctuations, and cell division.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Divisão Celular
/
Telômero
/
Senescência Celular
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2007
Tipo de documento:
Article